New Rochelle mayoral candidate explains her presence at dueling Israel-Palestine rally
In a video posted on TikTok, a group of protesters can be heard shouting, "Palestine will be free."
A video is gaining traction on TikTok showing a New Rochelle City councilmember, who is running for mayor, attending both a pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian protest.
The video was posted to TikTok four days ago by an account called NYC_001. As of Monday evening, the video had nearly 17,000 likes and over 2000 comments.
In the video, you can see Democratic candidate Yadira Ramos-Herbert interacting with people at dueling pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian protests.
The candidate told News 12 that she's seen the TikTok video. She explained that she's been trained to de-escalate volatile situations on campus and mentioned that this wasn't the first time that she's been involved at a student protest.
In a statement issued to News 12, a spokesperson from the law school's Public Affairs Office said in part that they "can confirm that Yadira Ramos-Herbert provided staff support in her capacity as associate dean of student and registration services."
However, the Democrat said she wants to make one thing clear to those who criticize her involvement at the protests.
"It's a little sad to me that someone's trying to politicize what's a humanitarian crisis through this post that was made, and I've made my position supporting Israel very clear on both my Instagram and Facebook pages," Ramos-Herbert said.
Meanwhile News 12 caught up with New Rochelle's Republican candidate for mayor, Louis Trangucci, to get his reaction on his opponent's involvement at the protests.
"I understand that Yadira works at Columbia, but honestly my opinion is that if there is a protest and you're running for office, it might be best if you haven't even claimed your position to stay away from the protests," Trangucci said.
